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Contemplation alone stands untouched by magic; no man
self-gathered falls to a spell; for he is one, and that unity is
all he perceives, so that his reason is not beguiled but holds
the due course, fashioning its own career and accomplishing its
task.
In the other way of life, it is not the essential man that gives
the impulse; it is not the reason; the unreasoning also acts as a
principle, and this is the first condition of the misfortune.
Caring for children, planning marriage- everything that works as
bait, taking value by dint of desire- these all tug obviously: so
it is with our action, sometimes stirred, not reasonably, by a
certain spirited temperament, sometimes as foolishly by greed;
political interests, the siege of office, all betray a
forth-summoning lust of power; action for security springs from
fear; action for gain, from desire; action undertaken for the
sake of sheer necessities- that is, for supplying the
insufficiency of nature- indicates, manifestly, the cajoling
force of nature to the safeguarding of life.
We may be told that no such magic underlies good action, since,
at that, Contemplation itself, certainly a good action, implies a
magic attraction.
The answer is that there is no magic when actions recognized as
good are performed upon sheer necessity with the recollection
that the veritable good is elsewhere; this is simply knowledge of
need; it is not a bewitchment binding the life to this sphere or
to any thing alien; all is permissible under duress of human
nature, and in the spirit of adaptation to the needs of existence
in general- or even to the needs of the individual existence,
since it certainly seems reasonable to fit oneself into life
rather than to withdraw from it.
When, on the contrary, the agent falls in love with what is good
in those actions, and, cheated by the mere track and trace of the
Authentic Good makes them his own, then, in his pursuit of a
lower good, he is the victim of magic. For all dalliance with
what wears the mask of the authentic, all attraction towards that
mere semblance, tells of a mind misled by the spell of forces
pulling towards unreality.
The sorcery of Nature is at work in this; to pursue the non-good
as a good, drawn in unreasoning impulse by its specious
appearance: it is to be led unknowing down paths unchosen; and
what can we call that but magic.
Alone in immunity from magic is he who, though drawn by the alien
parts of his total being, withholds his assent to their standards
of worth, recognizing the good only where his authentic self sees
and knows it, neither drawn nor pursuing, but tranquilly
possessing and so never charmed away.
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